Ask Me Anything: The Answer Post, Part 2

Hello readers! I seem to be making a habit of awfully long summer breaks in blogging, which I don't particularly like... But now I'm back with the second half of the Ask Me Anything event I hosted in April.

Before I get to that, let me remind you of another, rather more international-scale event that should be of interest to bookworms across the world: the Banned Books Week, 27.9-3.10. It's mostly an American event, initiated by libraries and booksellers, who are often pressured to remove "unsuitable" books from their selections. The Banned Books Week raises awareness of censorship and celebrates people's freedom to read and as these issues are relevant to readers everywhere in the world, I don't think we should let America celebrate all alone! Therefore, I'm inviting you all to pick a book that has been notoriously challenged or even banned and discuss it during the upcoming week in any medium available to you – blog, social media, circle of friends, anything that enables you to introduce this book and reflect on why you should have been prohibited from reading it. The American Library Association keeps lists of frequently challenged books from recent years, but there are plenty of notoriously challenged books all across the history of literature. I'm going to review Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner (2003), it would be great to see all of you fellow book bloggers participate with whatever you choose. Please throw me a link to your posts if you do! Let's really discuss censorship and read whatever the heck we want!

Now, moving on to the actual topic of the day. I'll be answering Hamlette's and Olivia's questions that they asked many... many months ago, and this little celebration for the second anniversary of Music & My Mind comes to an end. Thank you all for participating, I have had tremendous fun thinking up answers to all of these questions!

Hamlette asked:

What animated movie do you wish they would make a live-action version of next? Who would you cast?

As I'm supposed to be honest here, I'll have to tell you all that I'm completely bored and frustrated with this persisting Disney trend of live-action remakes. Not that I resist remakes on the whole or think that all of these Disney films are of bad quality – I'm absolutely open to the suggestion that some of them might be good films in their own right, even if I haven't bothered to see most of them myself.

The real reason why I don't applaud live-action remakes is that for me, the magic and the intrigue of the original Disney films is largely to do with the beautiful work they did with the animation. The older I got, the more awed I was by the fact that people could actually draw things like sunlight, thunderstorms and water – if you really stop to think about it, isn't it quite an achievement to animate even such an ordinary thing as a moving person? So I don't really see what the artistic gain is in telling essentially the same story as a live-action version. I hate to be cynical, but I get the feeling that Disney is after some easy profit in continuing with this trend.



What musical NEEDS a movie version but doesn't have one yet? Again, who would you cast?

I think some stage musicals are better off left on the stage in their awesomeness, but to be honest, I would be quite happy to see a film version of Jekyll & Hyde. The score is wonderful, the themes of addiction and ethics will never get old, and the Victorian setting would look gorgeous on screen – there would be so many things in this film's favour! As for casting, all I would ask for is actors with a strong musical background and at most a minimal amount of stunt casting. I would much prefer an unknown, interesting new talent with a gorgeous singing voice to a big-name Hollywood star who took a singing crash-course just before shooting.


Olivia asked: 

What is your opinion on the subject of Ramin Karimloo?

I can tell you that if you were to watch me listening to Ramin Karimloo,  you might witness something rather peculiar. There's this half-dreamy, half-zombie look in my eyes, I tend to clasp my hands really tight and perch on the very edge of whatever I'm sitting on. My goodness, what a voice. What a stage presence. Have you seen that look on his face when he plays Enjolras in the Les Misérables 25th anniversary concert and sings "The ABC Café Song"? And how, as the Phantom, he has incredibly expressive hands that more than make up for the fact that the mask hides half of his face? Just... wow.


Have you seen the new Cinderella movie? If so, what did you think?

I haven't, and as you can probably judge by my response to the question about Disney re-makes, I wasn't in a hurry to see it. However, a friend of mine saw it and told me that Cate Blanchett was magnificent, which I can easily believe!


Do you plan to pursue a career in theatre/musical theatre? Are you a soprano or an alto?

I would love to write plays and writing a musical is a crazy, ambitious dream that may or may not come true. I do like to sing though, and I'm definitely more of a soprano than an alto because my lower range is very limited and my belt voice is, quite frankly, pathetic.



What is your favourite version of The Phantom of the Opera? (Meaning any book, movie, or stage adaptation.)

That would be the stage musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I was lucky enough to see it at Her Majesty's Theatre in London, and it was one of the most impressive experiences of my life. Not only hearing but feeling the power of the music reminded me why I love musicals so much. I have also read the original novel by Gaston Leroux, which was quite a disappointment, unfortunately.

Romantic Duets for Valentine's Day

Romantic duets are one of the basic ingredients in the musical genre – which is why they have to be really good in order to stand out from the mass. A simple, dull "I love you", "I love you too" will not do. The best lovers' duets express joy and affection, and occasionally the hardships of love, without resorting to sappy lyrics riddled with clichés.

So, what else should a musical-loving blogger do on a Valentine's Day than list her Top Ten romantic musical duets? I know, right!

10. 'We Kiss in the Shadow'  

The King and I
Tuptim and Lun Tha
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Tuptim and Lun Tha have to meet in secret because Tuptim is a concubine of the King of Siam. The agony of forbidden love ensues. The lyrics aren't as memorable as some of the others on this list, but I do like the melody.

9. 'Sixteen Going On Seventeen'

The Sound of Music

Liesl and Rolf
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Alright, so this song is maybe a tiny bit depressing in hindsight, knowing what Rolf decides to do with his life in the end. I think for me, most of the appeal is in the specific performance by Charmian Carr and Daniel Truhitte in the film version (which I've linked above) rather than in the song itself, which frankly doesn't have an awful lot to say. I just love Liesl's dress and the dance in the gazebo.

8. 'A Heart Full of Love'

Les Misérables

Marius and Cosette
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Lyrics by Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer

I adore every bit of music that Claude-Michel Schönberg has ever composed, but even considering we're in the realm of theatre where the rules of credibility are frequently experimented with, I find myself shaking my head at Marius and Cosette who vow eternal love after literally just bumping to each other on the street for a couple of seconds.

7. 'As Long As You're Mine'

Wicked

Elphaba and Fiyero
Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Rather than a promise of eternity, Elphaba and Fiyero go for "just for this moment". I love the intro to this song, it enticingly foreshadows the passion for life and the slightly fatalistic tone of the rest of the tune.

6. 'Mountain Duet'

Chess

Florence and Anatoly
Music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Lyrics by Tim Rice and Björn Ulvaeus

Once again we get a bit of a different angle to the traditional "love duet" because this is set in a reluctant, awkward meeting between Anatoly the Russian chess player and Florence, the assistant to his American opponent. It begins with the characters wondering what the heck they are supposed to be doing here, and then Anatoly goes "Listen, I hate to break up the mood..." And the mood really gets going from there!

5. 'I'll Cover You'

RENT

Angel and Collins
Lyrics and music by Jonathan Larson

I'm sure I've already gushed about the earnestness of Angel and Collins, the absolute joy that this song expresses, and Angel's overall awesomeness as a character. Lyrics, melody, mood, characters, I just adore the whole package.

4. 'One Hand, One Heart'

West Side Story

Tony and Maria
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

This is on a much more solemn side. So why am I pointing the finger at Marius and Cosette's sudden confessions of love but ranked Maria and Tony practically rehearsing their wedding on fourth place? Well, I think West Side Story devotes a bit more more time and explanation to the main couple's character histories and setting up the premise that their lives are lacking fulfillment which they try to patch up with an admittedly hasty commitment. The tune overall has a beautiful simplicity to it. If I ever happen to get married, I want this song at my wedding.


3. 'Come What May'

Moulin Rouge!

Christian and Satine
Music and lyrics by David Baerwald

What power there is in three short words, 'Come what may'. I never get bored of this song! Once again, the tactic of starting soft and quiet and building up to a massive power blend of two voices works wonders.

2. 'Last Night of the World'

Miss Saigon

Kim and Chris
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Lyrics by Alain Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr.

Claude-Michel Schönberg does it again, there's something about this melody that makes me obsess over it. The world around Kim and Chris is dark and dangerous, but they have this lovely song. And the solo saxophone.

1. 'All I Ask Of You'

The Phantom of the Opera

Raoul and Christine
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe

There never was any debate in my mind as to which duet should be the top of the list. Out of the overall amazing score in The Phantom of the Opera, this song has always been my favourite (though Past the Point of No Return and The Music of the Night aren't far behind). As a rule, I turn into an emotional wreck as soon as 'Anywhere you go, let me go too' comes out. I'm also eternally thankful to whoever oversaw the casting of the 25th Anniversary performance because they gave us the chance to hear Sierra Boggess and Hadley Fraser sing this song to perfection. 

Le Fantôme de l'Opéra – quel ennui!

Most people are aware of the existence of an Andrew Lloyd Webber-composed musical phenomenon called The Phantom of the Opera, and will even recognize the first five notes of the overture. However, few will know that this famous spectacle is based on a little French novel written by Gaston Leroux, published in 1910. I had been familiar with the musical version for quite some time before I took up the novel – the original French edition, to keep up my skills – so naturally, I had some expectations and was interested to see how the stage adaptation compared to its original source.

I hate to say this, but I was incredibly bored most of the time with this book. The 300+ pages seemed to never come to an end, and that wasn't just because French is a little harder for me to read than English or Finnish. I think part of the problem was that, knowing the musical, I knew most of what was going to happen beforehand and so the narration lost part of its suspense.

The setting is, naturally, an opera house in late 19th century Paris, and among the workers and performers the rumours of a mysterious and terrifying "Phantom" figure persist, despite the new managers' efforts to wave it all off as a somewhat annoying product of the collective imagination. Meanwhile, the young and gifted soprano Christine Daaé believes she is taking singing lessons from an "angel of music" sent by her deceased father. However, she finds out that her angel is actually a man, Erik, who suffers from a hideous facial disfigurement and a desperate love for Christine, both of which the ingénue finds quite alarming. Raoul de Chagny, a childhood friend who now wants her love, tries to rescue poor Christine from the frightening mess Erik has made.

It's really a shame that Erik, although he is the titular "Phantom", doesn't get a proper appearance till about halfway through the book – the other two main characters we are given are terribly annoying in my humble opinion. Alright, Christine is very naïve in the musical adaptation too – even the most faithful fans find it more than a bit amusing how easily she follows a mask-wearing mystery man who suddenly appears through her dressing-room mirror – but in this book, she exasperated me more than ever. It seems that she is always pale and trembling and speaks almost exclusively in frightened whispers. Then she thwarts Raoul when he for once does some actual, rational thinking and suggests that they run the heck out of Erik's reach as soon as possible. This is a remarkable effort from Raoul, who isn't much in the habit of being rational in general. When he is not pining after Christine with every brain cell he possesses, he is being fiercely jealous of her and Erik. If he isn't by some chance doing either of these, he is probably bursting into tears for one reason or another.

Then there is a most enigmatic character who is simply called "the Persian". He does not appear in the musical version at all, but in the book he is very important. Like Erik, he doesn't make an appearance till halfway through the book, but then he practically takes over the narration almost till the very end. Also, Raoul would have gotten absolutely nowhere in his attempt to rescue Christine from the Phantom's hideaway if the Persian hadn't offered to help. The Persian seems to share the Phantom's knowledge of the Opera house's catacombs as well as a part of his eventful history. Also, it's him who has to find a way out of the trap that Erik sets them; Raoul has a complete mental breakdown and thinks he's in a forest in Congo when Bad Phantom plays a mirror trick on him. The Persian was a welcome addition to the cast of characters because he was smart and not annoying, unlike most of the other main characters, but I couldn't help but feel that he seemed perhaps a little out of place underneath a Parisian opera house. His connection to Erik is mostly explained, but I still questioned his motives in constantly tailing the man!

Brutal as I am about poor Raoul and Christine, I did like some of the characters in this book. Erik and the Persian certainly offer food for thought, especially the former. As I mentioned before, it takes a long time till the reader actually sees the Phantom, but his presence can be felt on almost every page, and he is truly complex and intriguing to read. I had great fun with the two Opera managers as well, called Messieurs Richard and Moncharmin in the book. Madame Giry was simply brilliant, even though it was at first quite a surprise to find out that she works as an usher instead of a ballet instructor. All in all, I thought the comedic bits in this book were its strongest asset, which is a little ironic when it is supposed to be all about horror and suspense...

Another thing that works very well in Le Fantôme is setting the atmosphere of the great opera house. Whether it was about the hustle and bustle backstage during a performance, or the gathering of gossiping chorus girls, or the maze of underground passages and trapdoors, I felt like I was genuinely there. Gaston Leroux chose a great location for his story and describes it exquisitely, but unfortunately it doesn't entirely make up for the one great problem that I had with this book and which made it incredibly heavy to read.

The real Paris Opera house, just to set the mood!

The pacing. That is the problem. As I mentioned before, it takes almost the entire first half of the book to determine that the "Phantom" really is a man called Erik and that he is also Christine's invisible singing teacher. Probably, the slow development of this conclusion wouldn't have bothered so much if all this had been new to me, but as it wasn't, it made for quite a tedious reading experience – having to turn page after page after page of Raoul and Christine's over-dramatic relationship squabbles when I really wanted to see the Phantom. Well, halfway through the book all the dots are finally connected. Then Erik kidnaps Christine in the middle of a performance, which is quite exciting as it indicates that we are getting near to the intense finale of this passion-filled love triangle...

But... hang on, we are still only a couple of pages over the middle of this book! Is Leroux seriously suggesting that the entire second half is going to be about Raoul looking for Christine? Apparently... yes. If the reader is supposed to be greatly interested in how the Persian babysits a mentally declining Raoul through the underground passages and how they bump into a completely random rat catcher before dropping into Erik's psychedelic mirror room where they sit for three chapters – well, it certainly didn't do the trick for me.

For a non-native speaker who wants to try out a novel in French, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra looks relatively non-threatening with its little more than 300 pages and relatively standard use of the language – the only part where I got a little lost was the detailed descriptions of the trapdoor system under the Opera house, which kind of reminded me of Victor Hugo's devotion to Parisian sewers in Les Misérables. However, depending on how much you take issue with pacing and the character of Raoul de Chagny, you might be in for a longer journey of reading than you expected, wishing you had your own random Persian to take you through it.

Miss Saigon cast update – Thuy has been found!

As you know, I was super excited when the main cast for the Miss Saigon London revival was announced, but there was still one important part missing: Thuy! Not only does he make pivotal (and scary as heck) appearances in the show, but I'm a huge admirer of original cast member Keith Burns' portrayal of him, and was eager to see what kind of a man they were going to find to do his job. Just listen to some of the material Thuy has to sing! Doesn't Keith Burns' raspy, menacing voice of power just send chills down your spine? (Thuy starts to sing around 0:40)

So yes, seeing the right man play the part of Thuy is very important to me, and now I'm extremely pleased to find that another fantastic casting choice has been made. Kwang-Ho Hong is his name, he's a Korean musical actor, and he gets his own little introduction video from Cameron Mackintosh. And, holy sweet goodness, his CV includes the title role in The Phantom of the Opera!

Kwang-Ho Hong as Thuy

I highly advise you to see the introduction video through the link, if you haven't already. Just the few notes that he sings there make it quite clear that he has a voice that I can only describe as insanely well-trained. However, just to see and hear more of him, I dug out a couple of videos from his other performances. It appears he has played Raoul and the Phantom in the Korean production, and there's a video of him singing All I Ask Of You. He sings quite softly here, but very handsomely.

Here's another performance from Jekyll & Hyde. The sound quality is even worse than the previous video, but you get a glimpse of his more powerful style of singing.

I'm so delighted to be introduced to all these wonderful talents from around the world by stalking Miss Saigon, and Kwang-Ho Hong gets a definite thumbs-up from me. The part of Thuy will be in expert hands!

London Culture Explosion!

Last week was was possibly the most wonderful week of my life, and the reason for that was spending four days in my favourite city: London! Em and I had started planning this visit months ago, booking tickets for Ryanair and Les Misérables at Queen's Theatre. I can't possibly describe how over the moon we were at the prospect of not only seeing our favourite musical on stage for the first time, but also of seeing our first West End show. The excitement threatened to turn into stress and anxiety as I waited, waited and never received the confirmation email that I was supposed to get and print out to show at the Queen's Theatre box office. However, as you'll read in my travel diary that follows, everything turned out spectacularly fine.

Monday

The Tampere-Pirkkala airport is one of the dingiest, most depressing buildings in the Universe, but being stuck there for a couple of hours was completely worth it considering where we were going. To make our destination even more exciting, Em got a phone call from our hotel before we boarded the plane. We were told that the room we had booked had become somehow unavailable, but in recompense they had arranged us a room in another hotel just around the corner, and we would get the hotel breakfast free of charge.

It didn't take us long to turn into "lost little tourists asking questions" once we arrived at Stansted Airport.  We had a very amusing conversation with the ticket booth man who patiently explained to us that the Stansted Express would take us to Liverpool Street and yes, that was indeed in London.

By the time we were transported to our newly-arranged hotel room, Em and I were already completely in awe about how nice and polite all the people in this country seemed to be. From now on, I will call Finland Grumpyville in my mind. We were a little travel-worn from the plane and the train, but nevertheless we couldn't bear to stay shut up in that beautiful hotel room, when the city was calling us out! Not that we got too wild on our first night. It consisted mainly of wandering around Piccadilly Circus, admiring how pretty the city looked in the dark, and ogling at theatres and their advertisements. We went to admire Queen's Theatre in advance and also Her Majesty's Theatre, which of course is the home of The Phantom of the Opera. 

Something surprising happened too, something which I'm immensely glad about in retrospect. After seeing dozens of those "half price theatre tickets" booths along the streets, Em had the unstoppable urge to make her way into one of them and ask if they had tickets for The Phantom of the Opera this week. The answer was: "Would you like to go tomorrow?" Can you guess what we responded to that?

Tuesday

The first thing I did on Tuesday morning was find out what the situation was with our Les Mis tickets because we were genuinely scared that we wouldn't be let into the theatre at all on Thursday. In the end I only had to make two more phone calls and as both of the personnel I spoke with were extremely helpful and efficient, I had the much-needed ticket confirmation number in no time. We may have had a little hype attack with Em after the ticket business was officially settled.

Now we were completely free to enjoy a shopping spree to London's most celebrated shopping area, Oxford Street. Em found herself a very nice dress to wear to the theatre, but as neither of us are big fans of shopping in the traditional sense, our morning of shopping turned out to be a little tour around the different Waterstones bookshops. I have to admit that going to Waterstones was, right after seeing Les Mis, the thing I had been looking forward to most! We first went to Oxford Street Waterstones, where I made a rather surprising find: there, in the small selection of DVDs, Liza Minnelli was staring right at me from the cover of Cabaret! I couldn't possibly leave her there. Next up was the Waterstones at Piccadilly Circus aka "Book Heaven". It has five floors!! And in one of those five floors there was an entire shelf dedicated to Shakespeare, and I found this:

I haven't had the chance to properly read this book yet, but according to the back cover and the table of contents, it contains articles about challenges in staging Shakespeare plays, such as costumes, props and stage fighting. Just you wait, Royal Shakespeare Company, I'll be joining your ranks in a couple of years...

Between the Waterstones visits, we managed to find a gigantic CD/DVD store (everything in London seems to be at least six times bigger than in Grumpyville) where we went absolutely hyper when a salesperson told us they had a whole shelf for musicals. So there we went, and met the glorious sight of stacks of movie musical DVDs which we would never, ever find in our dear country. Anttila Megastore should be ashamed. I managed to control myself enough to settle to buying just four new movies.

Shopping haul from the morning's excursion:

• Book: Shakespeare & The Making Of Theatre, edited by Stuart Hampton-Reeves and Bridget Escolme
• Movie: Cabaret
• Movie: The King and I
• Movie: Hairspray
• Movie: RENT

Once Em and I were satisfied with our shopping, we returned to the hotel to get ready for the evening's ex tempore programme: The Phantom of the Opera! We were slowly starting to realize that we were in fact going to see the show that we had been drooling about for such a long time. We absolutely didn't want to be late at Her Majesty's Theatre, so we gave ourselves plenty of time to get pretty and find our way there, because with two people with almost no sense of orientation on the move, we had to give ourselves time to get lost on the way to the theatre. We didn't get lost, but somehow the hotel's elevator managed to get stuck while we were in it! Was the Phantom stalking us even before we entered his theatre? However, we got out safely and arrived at Her Majesty's Theatre an hour before the show started, which meant there was loads of time to take pictures of the posters outside and do some Phantom gift shopping. I have a thing for bracelets with things dangling from them, so I had to buy the Phantom-themed bracelet they had there (and then find a way to shorten it because apparently they manufacture those things to people with huge wrists). I also bought the programme leaflet with lots of gorgeous pictures in it.

Unfortunately I won't say anything about the performance itself here... because I'll be making separate blog posts for each of the plays we saw in London! That is the only way to do them justice, don't you think? All I will say now is, I will never stop thanking Em for bursting into that half-price ticket booth.

Wednesday

The sun was shining brightly from a dazzlingly blue sky – what a perfect day to go walking along the Thames! Our plan today was to cross south of the river via London Bridge, see if we'd be lucky enough to get return tickets for the matinee performance of Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, and then cross the river again to visit St Paul's Cathedral.

We took the underground to the Monument and finally found out what that immensely tall construction was. There was a wonderful surprise in the train as well: three guys scrambled in with their instruments and played Irish jigs!

The entrance to London Bridge is practically next to the Monument, but somehow we managed to make some strange detour before we eventually found ourselves on the Bridge. Walking across the Thames was awesome, especially as we had an excellent view of the famous Tower Bridge as well. Actually, my whole infatuation with London began when I saw a picture of Tower Bridge in a book – why it was a picture of a bridge that had such an impact, don't ask.

Once we were on the south side of the bridge, we began the search for a site that I particularly wanted to see as a musical fan: Nancy's Steps, where Nancy dies in the musical Oliver!. It turned out to be very well hidden for a famous site! We had to ask directions from two people before we found the Steps, where the plaque bearing their name and history had somehow been taken away!

Picture taken by Em

While making our way towards Shakespeare's Globe, we stumbled upon Southwark Cathedral. As we had still hours to pass before the Macbeth return tickets would be sold and Em is a huge cathedral junkie, we popped in for a visit. Southwark Cathedral, it turned out, is the oldest cathedral in London, and has a memorial for William Shakespeare – his grave, of course, is situated in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Thames looked absolutely beautiful in the sunshine, and the temperature must have been even higher than the 24℃ that the weather forecast promised. So it was really quite comfortable camping outside Shakespeare's Globe in the return ticket queue. I was once again amazed at how popular this theatre is – I already witnessed it during my previous visit to London, but now I got to see how many desperate people there were besides us as the return ticket queue got longer and longer!

It had been our plan from the start to see Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, but the tickets were sold out at lightning speed, which left us the option to trust our luck with possible return tickets. I don't know if those people at the end of that huge queue got tickets, but Em and I did! They were much pricier than the standing tickets of ₤5 that we would have wanted, but it didn't matter at all in the end, because we got the best possible seats: in the lower gallery, almost exactly in the center, with a completely unblocked view to the stage! There aren't many seats like that in the Globe. Because it is built exactly like it would have been in Shakespeare's days, from most seats the view is obstructed by pillars. However, this is the spectacular view from our seats (I took the picture before the play started, because taking pictures during performances is of course forbidden)

The sun kept shining, which was nice because the Globe is an open-air theatre so if it rains, the people with yard tickets get wet. However, I did feel sorry for the poor actors (among them Billy Boyd as Banquo!) who had to perform in the sweltering heat with those heavy Renaissance costumes on. Once again there will be a separate post for Macbeth where I will tell you more about it.

I bought this poster from the Globe giftshop:

Our plan to visit St Paul's didn't work out because it closed at 4 p.m. so that would have to wait till the next day.

Thursday

We left our hotel room later than usual today, because we were going to give up the room so we had to pack and make sure we didn't leave anything lying around. However, we still had one whole day to spend in London. We were going to visit St Paul's Cathedral again (properly) and take a look at the British Museum before the long-awaited Les Misérables in the evening. While we were able to leave our big suitcases at the hotel for the day, we had to take our theatre dresses and everything else we needed for the theatre night (shoes, jewellery, hairspray...) with us on the road.

We went to St Paul's with much better success today. We got inside and saw the famous cathedral in all its magnificence. Every time I see such a massive church, I can't help but marvel how those buildings were put together with none of the technology we have nowadays, and how many decades and how much supplies of all kinds the process must have taken. St Paul's, however, does use modern technology: all of a sudden, there was a voice coming through a loudspeaker, inviting everyone to join in the Lord's Prayer! If I was a practicing Christian, I wouldn't necessarily choose St Paul's Cathedral for my prayers – so many tourists in there, must be impossible to get into a peaceful state of mind. St Paul's has attractions both high and low. We visited both the Whispering Gallery high up in the dome – a climb of 232 steps – and the crypt down below, where the air was so bad I got a terrible headache.

Police horses!

Unfortunately Em and I weren't as lucky with the British Museum as we had been with all other things so far. Everyone goes to the British Museum to see the Egyptian mummies, but we weren't really interested in those. We wanted to explore the rooms of European history, especially the Renaissance and Victorian eras, but those very rooms happened to be closed that day. Well, at least we found fabulous glitter masks from the gift shop, so we can now pay homage to the Masquerade number in The Phantom of the Opera.

After a tasty Italian dinner, we had to find a place to change into our theatre clothes. We ended up invading a Pizza Hut ladies' room, where we might have got a couple of funny looks from people as we liberally sprayed perfume and hairspray all around. We had a nice extra addition to our outfits tonight: Em had sewn us tricolor sashes in honour of Les Amis de l'ABC.  The nice guy at the Queen's Theatre box office didn't even have to ask me which tickets we were collecting. He, the theatre giftshop salesman, and even the man at the cloakroom were very genuine in wishing us a good time at the show, something which a citizen of Grumpyville finds very uplifting. It had been my plan for days to buy this t-shirt from the Les Mis shop:

Once again, my thoughts on our very first, long-awaited experience of stage Les Mis will be posted separately.

Friday

There wasn't really anything Culture Explosional about this last day – all we did was transport ourselves with all sorts of vehicles in a dead-tired state.

I think we baffled the hotel personnel just a bit when we returned there to collect our luggage and then asked to use the toilet, going in wearing theatre dresses and getting out wearing jeans and Cosette shirts. Then it was time to say goodbye to that beautiful, comfortable hotel and journey into the night.

We took the underground to Piccadilly Circus once more, only to find out soon after that that all tube stations would close for a couple of hours, meaning we would have to find another way to get to Liverpool Station. Once more we got advice from a helpful stranger and found a bus to take us there. Another closed gate: the station was also closing for the rest of the night! For the past three days, we had been living like London posh people, going to the theatre every night – tonight, we tried out the life of London hobos, camping outside the station gates and devouring McDonald's nourishment. The man who finally opened the gates at 3.40 in the morning was such a welcome sight.

The Stansted Express took us smoothly to Stansted Airport, where we miraculously ended up at the right gate despite our sleep-deprived states and were extremely depressed to hear Finnish being spoken around us once again.

Random funny videos from the world of musicals

I was feeling down tonight so I decided to make a post to up my mood. This is basically a bunch of videos that always make me happy no matter how many times I've watched them! All of them happen to be related to musical theatre.

Christina Bianco's Diva Impressions
This one is a fairly new discovery I made, all thanks to Being Alive, a great Finnish musical blog! Christina Bianco is really funny and talented. It's such a great accomplishment to be able to sing well in your own voice, let alone trying to imitate about a dozen other singers... My favourite impressions here are Julie Andrews, Céline Dion, Britney Spears, Judy Garland and Kristin Chenoweth!

John vs Killian - Phantom Twister
John Owen-Jones and Killian Donnelly are both extremely talented West End performers whom I love to listen to, but on these John vs Killian videos, instead of singing they do funny challenges – because the Phantom of the Opera fandom is always pitting the Phantom and Raoul against each other.

Samantha Barks wins role of Éponine
Okay, anyone who's stalked on Les Mis film related videos will have seen it, but I have to mention it because it always puts me in a good mood. About halfway through the video Cameron Macintosh walks on stage with the cast of Oliver! and surprises Samantha :)

Colm Wilkinson is Back
Another Les Mis film featurette which I love for two reasons: 1. It has Colm Wilkinson in it and he's one of the most adorable people ever, 2. We get to hear his divine voice. Seriously, how many people can still sing so beautifully at the age of 68?

Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman at 2011 Tony Awards
Both of these guys are so handsome and talented and seem like such nice people I'd love to meet them... And here they are on the same video!

Les Mis Bloopers
One more video I added after I'd already published this post – I can't believe I forgot this one, it is amazingly funny! Vikidál Gyula, the Hungarian Valjean starting at 3:32, is absolutely priceless!

Have a great day everyone!